The Falcon Ridge Series Book 2 Not Just A Girl

(Chapter song ‘Natural' by Imagine Dragons)

JAYSON

I spent almost all night with the guys in my office. We're pouring over videos and reports from the team leaders about what they saw. I’m trying desperately to figure out how ten rogues got passed our security.

Ten rogues left eleven injured, two severely and several of my kids traumatized. Just ten. What's a hundred going to do?

Although we managed to kill six of them, I'm left wondering if this is still a good idea. What if the fight is worse? What if we lose?

I'm sitting in my chair behind my desk, asking myself these questions as the guys argue about what to do.

"I say, we gather those who want to go, and search these fuckers out! We drag their asses back here and beat the fucking answers out of them!" Luke slams his large fist on the conference table, knocking me out of my thoughts.

I shake my head, lean on my desk and lace my fingers together. "We have no idea where to even look, Luke."

He leans on the conference table. "We're fucking wolves, Jay! What?! Is your fucking nose broken?!"

I stand and glare. "No, but yours is going to be if you don't fucking cool it."

He walks around the table. "Fucking bring it."

Kale steps in front of Luke and holds him back. "Dudes! This isn't helping!"

Luke shrugs him off and strides to the back of my office. He leans on the wall and fumes as he crosses his arms.

"OK!" I say in a frustrated tone as I sit back down. "Look. I get we all just want to drop everything and go hunting, but those were not ordinary rogues. They were trained and organized. They were probably sent here by the pack heading to Black Lake."

"Well..." Deacon puts his elbow on the arm of his chair and rests his chin on his hand. "How would they know to come here?"

I lean back. "I have no fucking clue. Unless someone told them.” I eye my guys and contemplate the fact that we may have a mole.

"Who the fuck would be so stupid to do that?!" Luke barks.

I shake my head. "I don't know and truthfully, it could've been anyone from here to Black Lake. We have no way of knowing."

Luke pushes of the wall and thumps his heavy boots across the floor. He leans on my desk as he grits his teeth. "Let me go get one of these assholes and find out, Jay! Just me. I'm the better tracker, anyway. We need answers, I'll fucking get them for you."

I cover my mouth with my curled fingers as I lean on the arm of my chair. I stare off into the room as I consider his request. After a moment, I heaved a sigh. "Fine..."

He stands up, clearly excited I'm letting him go on a potential suicide mission. "Bro, I'll hunt these assholes down. Be prepared to interrogate the fuck out of them.”

"Luke. Intel only! We don't know how many of them are out there. You get in, get the info we need and get the fuck out. No goddamn heroics. You report every five hours and if I don't hear from you in two check-ins, I'm coming for you. Do you understand?" I say as I point aggressively at him. The last thing I want is any more people getting hurt.

"Don't worry, bro. I got this." Before I could address his cockiness, he left the office, slamming the door behind him.

I lean on my desk. "He better not get himself fucking killed." I grumble.

Kale stood in between Cass and Deacon's chairs. "Don't worry, dude. Luke knows what he's doing."

"He better." I sit back in my chair. "Did we find anything on the fence?"

Cass adjusts himself in his chair. "There was a section of fencing that was powered down. The wires were cut."

I look at him, confused. "How were they cut?"

"Tore out." He informs. "By a wolf from the inside."

I thump my finger on the top of my desk. "From here? Someone from here broke the wires?"

Deacon nods. "Looks like it."

I stab my fingers through my hair as I slump in my chair. My laced hands cover my mouth as my brows stitch together. "Ok. Do we have cameras in the area?" I mumble from behind my fingers.

Cass sighs. "No. The brush is too thick, but we did catch this." He turns his laptop to me and presses play. "It's not very good and we would've missed it had we not been looking for anything weird, but well, see for yourself."

I watch the video and didn't see anything at first. It was a shot of the training field in the northwest corner. The camera was off the Alpha building. "What am I looking at?"

Cass points to the upper corner of the picture where the tree line started to go off frame. "There."

I look closer and caught it. A body comes out of the brush and disappears to the left of the screen.

It was so quick and blurry that you would definitely miss it if you weren’t looking. The only thing I could discern was that it was no Alpha.

"So, it was one of the kids." I close the laptop, slowly. I feel like I’ve been slapped in the face.

Kale put his hands up. "We don't know that. What we do know is that area is the area of fencing that was broken. We can only assume that this person is the one who broke it."

I nod slowly. "Ok. Can we tell who it is?"

Deacon shakes his head. "Not yet. I have one of the office people analyzing the video. He's going to try and clean it up and see if he can find anything that can identify the person. The best we can do right now is clearly say it's male. 18 to 20."

"So, like three quarters of the recruits." I rub my temples at the growing headache.

Cass ticks the corner of his mouth down. "About that. Yeah."

"Great." I rub my forehead. "Is there anything else we can do?"

"Yeah. I have a buddy who works for the phone company. He owes me one. I can ask him if there were any pings off the tower that's close to here. Maybe we can see if any calls were made prior to the attack." Deacon offers.

"Make the call." I order.

Deacon leaves his chair and pulls out his cellphone. He crosses the room to be out of the noise.

Cass looks at me. "What do you want me to do?"

"Check on Wren then check on the kids. If we can assure that we are secure, set up training for tomorrow. If not, the lockdown continues." I open the security files on my desk. "I'll have to inform Caledon of the breach then I need to go on a run."

"You sure that's wise? Contacting Caledon, I mean." Cass arches a brow. "They might start asking questions."

I pick up my pen and pull my report in front of me. "I'll have to report it. I can't hide this. I won't tell them what we know or why we think they were here. As far as Caledon will know, it was a random attack still under investigation."

"Ok. If you think it's ok." Cass stands and turns to the door. "I'll text you with Wren's status."

I nod and watch him leave.

Kale stood with his arms crossed. "I'm going to check on Georgia. She was pretty freaked."

I give him a half smile. "Ok. Keep an eye on those kids, alright. If any are struggling with this, send them to me. We'll talk."

"Will do." Kale salutes and walks out.

I put my pen to my report, but nothing is coming. I don't know what to write. I just know the minute I send this in, Caledon is going to be all over this place. The problem is, the longer they're here, the more chances there are of them finding out our plan. I swear, this was the rogue's plan. Force us to back down out of fear of the Unit.

With my head throbbing and my wolf going insane, I needed a run now. I close the file and put it in my drawer. I lock my office and head outside for the trees. The moonlight illuminates the field and the night breeze blows through the leaves. I should be with Sarah, but I'm just too agitated. I'll calm down first.

****

I got back to the dorms around 2am. I walk through the front doors and start to walk toward the elevators. Seeing something out of the corner of my eye, I stop then step back to the first hallway after the front doors. I turn my head to the left and see what I thought I saw.

The doors to the dining hall are open halfway when they should be locked. I turn toward them and approach cautiously. Given the day's events, my nerves are on edge.

I push open the door and peer into the darkness. All the lights are off except for a few security lights. My eyes scan the room suspiciously and with shifter night vison, I can see the culprit clearly.

I heave a calming breath and walk in.

There's my darling, little criminal girlfriend laying on a table. Her blonde hair is pooled around her head. She's wearing a tiny, white tank with little pink shorts. Her legs are bent with one crossed over the other. Pink bunny slippers are on her feet which I can’t help but smile at.

I walk in slowly and cross my arms as I assess that she's eating ice cream she stole from the kitchen. As I get closer, I realize she's listening to music with headphones. Her foot is bouncing to whatever she's listening to.

I should flick the lights on and take her back bed, but instead I turn back to the buffet table and grab a spoon.

She is so engrossed in her music that she didn't hear me approach. She didn't even flinch when I sat on the bench. It was only when I scooped my ice cream that she whipped her head around and ripped out an ear bud. I threw the spoon in my mouth and put up my hands. Once seeing it was me, she smiles.

I return the smile with the handle of the spoon sticking out of my lips. I pull it out, lean my elbow on the table and place my head in my hand. "Hey kid. You know you're not supposed to be in here." I scoop some more ice cream and shovel it on my mouth.

She licks the ice cream off her spoon. "I know." I’m starting to feel less aggravated by how unapologetic she is. It’s weird. Her little act outs are starting to look cute.

"So, why are you in here?" I ask as I lick the ice cream off my spoon.

She shrugs. Her little bunny slipper is still bouncing to the music. "I wanted ice cream."

I arch my brow. "You like ice cream so much, you committed break and enter to get some?"

"No. That’s not why." She digs for more as her blue eyes meet mine for a quick second.

I toss my spoon in the bucket and fold my arms on the table. I tilt my head. "Why are you in here, baby?" I whisper. I feel like this has to do with the attack.

She rolls onto her side, propping her head up on her hand and elbow. "Promise not to laugh?" She mumbles.

I pick up my spoon, scoop some ice cream and feed it to her. "Baby, I'd never laugh at you."

She scoops her spoon and feeds me. "I had a nightmare." She mumbles.

"What about?" I fed her again.

"Everyone I knew was gone." She says quietly. For a second, I felt I was talking with a little kid. "My mom, dad, Maddie, Shane... you. Everyone. I was alone. It scared me so I came here." She tosses her spoon into the bucket.

"So, ice cream makes you feel better when you have a bad dream?" I drop my spoon into the bucket again. I feel like I need to really soak this moment in.

She shakes her head. "No. When I was little and I had a bad dream, I'd sneak into my parent's room and wake my dad. He'd scoop me up in his huge arms and carry me into the kitchen. We'd eat ice cream and he'd make me talk about it. I guess I missed it."

I grab her hand and rub it with my thumb. "Given what happened today, I can see why you'd have that dream. I promise you that will never happen. Baby, I may not be your dad, but if you ever need ice cream, wake me. No matter what, ok?"

Sarah nods. “Thank you.”

I smile and stand up. "Ok, kid." I grit as I pull her up to a sit. "You better get back to bed before you get caught."

She jumps down to the floor. "You already caught me."

I lean down to her as I wrap my arm around her shoulder. "Don't say a word and I didn't see a thing." I wink and she lets out a quiet giggle.

We head to the door and I reach for the handle. As I pull the door open and lead her out, I ask, "How'd you get in here anyway?"

"I put bubble gum in the lock my first week here in case I got hungry." She shrugs.

My brows go up. "No shit?"

She nods.

"We need to really revisit our security." I chuckle as I shake her.

I shut the door and we walk to the elevator to turn in after an extremely long night.